


Old Flames Still Burning

by Madu



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: About old flames that still have fuel to burn, Dying Will Flames, Gen, Katekyo Hitman Reborn - Freeform, M/M, Multi, Not quite reincarnation but comes close, boku no hero academia - Freeform, inspired by other fanfics, no more plot tags because of the spoilers, this fandom needs more fics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:42:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25618291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madu/pseuds/Madu
Summary: Sawada Tsunayoshi looks at the latest invention of Irie Shouichi and Spanner's life, closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before entering and settling into the left capsule while Yuni adjusts to the middle one and Byakuran happily settles in on the right. Byakuran will define the destination, Yuni would be the guide and Tsuna, as the most powerful of the three, would be the vehicle that would take them wherever the final destination was.Kawahira looks at them with pity, or as much pity as a non-human entity can feel, and asks if they are ready.They are not, never will be, but this is for the good of the world, as the radiation from the destroyed Trinisette is killing the planet, and Tsuna would be condemned if he did nothing to change that.For that and for his dead Guardians, he says they are ready. Kawahira closes the hatch, and what remains of the world falls into light.Meanwhile, in another place - in another world -, Midoriya Izuku chokes on slime, and something inside him wakes up.
Relationships: Midoriya Izuku & Sawada Tsunayoshi, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 32
Kudos: 251
Collections: Reincarnation and Transmigration





	1. One

* * *

**Prologue: In the end, even an overarching Great Sky can fall**

* * *

Incredible as it may seem, the apocalyptic chaos that led to the end of the world was not Reborn's fault. In fact, it was not really someone's fault, but a set of circumstances that accumulated over the ten years between The Ten Years That Didn't Happen and now.

It all came to light with the resurgence of Simon Famiglia and the return of Daemon Spade from the shadows, ending in the aftermath of the Battle of the Trinisette, where the Arcobaleno Pacifiers were removed from their holders and placed in an artificial feeder, just as Kawahira should have done when the Ancient Terrans created this system hungry for the blood, lives and Flames of the Strongest Seven, souls of the Vongola Sky and the sanity of any Sky that was talented enough to use the Mare Rings. The joint creation of Talbot, Irie, Spanner, Giannini and Verde should be able to keep the world going while it was guarded by the Vindice and cared for by Kawahira, but no one, not even the Old Terran who kept the system active for millions and millions of years, hoped the Pacifiers were so addicted to powerful Flames that they demanded more and more power as the years passed, until it got to the point that the artificial feeder was no longer able to keep the little odious things satisfied.

They bought ten years. And when the Pacifiers ran out of fuel, they began to suck the Flames from the environment, transforming Vindicare into a hungry black hole that sucked all the considerable peaks of the Dolamites and streaked five fully inhabited provinces on the map. And then came the radiation equivalent to a dozen atom bombs.

Of course, from there, things went completely to hell.

The Neo Vongola Primo is twenty-six years old when a kilometer-long hole opened in northern Italy and swallowed a mountain range, several cities and buried the mobsters' prison before releasing the deadly radiation from Arcobaleno Pacifiers. He and the other Great Skyes manage to hold the reins of _Cosa Nostra_ by the skin of their teeth, and even use their considerable influences to help keep things running in the world, but little by little things got worse, the food ran out, people without Active Flames began to die by the hundreds of thousands, and in a short time the world governments collapsed.

Lal Mirch was one of the first Flame Assets to die of Flame failure and radiation sickness. Collonello was not far behind her.

It was then that Kawahira - still injured and worn out from the disaster at Vindicare - and Byakuran - who peeked at different universes and found that most of them had the same problem with pacifiers at different times - had an idea. A crazy and almost impossible idea, but an idea that could work, especially if they used the power of the Three Great Skyes.

In the end, it all came down to Irie Shouichi, Spanner and space-time travel.

Sawada Tsunayoshi looks at the latest invention of Irie Shouichi and Spanner's life, closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before entering and settling into the left capsule while Yuni adjusts to the middle one and Byakuran happily settles in on the right. Byakuran will define the destination, Yuni would be the guide and Tsuna, as the most powerful of the three, would be the vehicle that would take them wherever the final destination was.

Kawahira looks at them with pity, or as much pity as a non-human entity can feel, and asks if they are ready.

They are not, never will be, but this is for the good of the world, as the radiation from the destroyed Trinisette is killing the planet, and Tsuna would be condemned if he did nothing to change that.

For that and for his dead Guardians, he says they are ready. Kawahira closes the hatch, and what remains of the world falls into light.

Meanwhile, in another place - _in another world_ -, Midoriya Izuku chokes on slime, and something inside him wakes up.


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The changes begin.
> 
> Two days early!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: mentions of suicide at different ages, bullying, physical and verbal abuse and prejudice similar - if not equal - to racism.
> 
> If any part of the content of the text causes any kind of trigger or discomfort to you reader, I apologize in advance. If any of you readers think that an acquaintance of yours - or even yourselves - is at risk of suicide or something similar, please help that person or look for the Life Valuation Center in your region.
> 
> On a less tense and scary note, here is my user on Tumblr, where I will post little things about this fic and the other two that I am working on gradually, along with some things from my Spirit Fanfics.
> 
> Tumblr: @ma-du
> 
> Spirit Fanfics (content entirely in Brazilian Portuguese): @mo_the_cat
> 
> Good reading

* * *

**Lesson Number One: Old embers just need a little breath to return to burn**

* * *

Midoriya Izuku was born on a reasonably cloudy 15th of July, with chances of rain, just when the sun was setting and the sky was completely orange after an excruciating twelve hours of labour for an exhausted but happy Midoriya Inko and an absent Midoriya Hisashi. Izuku was born with his mother's facial features and hair color, and his father's soft, rebellious freckles and curls, while his eyes were a charming mix of Inko's moss green and Hisashi's amber fire. With his baby folds and cherub cheeks, little Izuku was a cute little ball and the center of his proud mother's universe. He was healthy and had all the fingers and toes, strong lungs and a voracious appetite - in short, Midoriya Izuku was the perfect baby, who grew up in an energetic and intelligent boy, hero worshiper and number one fan of All Might.

In any other world, Midoriya Izuku would have grown up to be a renowned researcher, a high-performance athlete or even the Prime Minister of Japan.

This is not one of those worlds.

In this world where Midoriya Izuku was born, at some point Homo Sapiens took a sudden - and frankly random - evolutionary leap and developed a kind of ... Mutation. The "zero patient" was born in China, a child who emitted light. After that, more and more cases of children with mutagenic genes largely identical to that of China's brilliant child began to be born, and in two hundred years and a few decades, the number of people with Peculiarities of some kind corresponded to eighty percent of humanity . Little Izuku, with an above average IQ for small children that was mentioned above? It is unfortunate to say that he is not part of that eighty percent.

Unlike both his parents and equal to the other twenty percent of the calculation mentioned above, Midoriya Izuku was Quirkless.

And because of that, for being born without the mutagenic common to the rest of humanity, Midoriya Izuku was been discarded.

Four years of age was a milestone in the life of any child born in the Post-Quirk era, as it was between four and five years that the peculiar gene would become fully active and the child would develop its Peculiarity, which was normally a mixture of both their parents. Let's take Midoriya Izuku's neighbors as an example.

Bakugou Mitsuki was a temperamental woman with platinum blonde hair very similar to the spiky coat of an angry pomeranian in style and a pair of incredibly red eyes - in other times, she would have been considered an albino -, pale skin and a peculiarity that allowed her to release small explosions of compressed air from her hands. Mitsuki had married Bakugou Masaru, a gentle man with chocolate brown hair reasonably more behaved than his wife, with light brown eyes and a degree of myopia. Unlike his wife, Masaru didn't have any really striking peculiarities, but he could secrete some chemicals in his sweat - nothing toxic or considerably flammable, but secreting certain amounts of acid helped a lot in the construction business, especially when they needed to dilute paint from the hands. The two had a son at about the same time as Midoriya Inko, a boy with Mitsuki's hair, face style, red eyes and pale skin mixed with Masaru's body structure. Bakugou Katsuki grew up like any ordinary child would in that relatively new era of heroes and villains, and when he was four years old - as everyone knew he would - Katsuki awoke his peculiarity.

Explosive oxygen + chemical fluid secretion = highly explosive nitroglycerin sweat in the hands of a highly impressionable little child.

Bakugou Katsuki is a classic example of hereditary genetics, where the mixture of peculiarities favored Quirk of the strongest parent and ended the last details with that of the weaker parent. That said, it is possible to conclude that the mixed peculiarities of Hisashi and Inko - minor telekinesis and the ability to spit fire like a dragon -, when mixed in Izuku's DNA, would result in a relatively strong peculiarity, right?

Well, as mentioned before, the answer is a great **no**.

In the relatively deep pool of peculiar genetics, Midoriya Izuku was one of those zygotes who took the smallest toothpick out of the grand scheme of things, and that gives the excuse of mentioning a small but significant problem in this new superhuman society: prejudice. Remember when it was mentioned that four years old was a milestone in a child's life? This particular milestone has an extremely high repercussion throughout the child's life, and many of the small gremlins who manifest a peculiarity that is relatively "useful" for support or combat are influenced to enter the heroic industry or army, while the rest are targeted - and conditioned - to other industrial niches in society, such as Bakugou Masaru joined construction and Midoriya Hisashi for whatever current job he had abroad. If anyone had a peculiarity of x-ray vision? Well, the predominant options were heroic support, police or medicine, for example. Many peculiarities were directed to specific fields of ordinary life, and society was slowly but surely conditioned to believe that only those with powerful Quirks could fill the limited spaces in the hero agencies, let alone go around saving people.

And here comes the question: _what about people who don't have a Quirk?_

Here is the answer: they are disregarded, overlooked and ignored, and if Quirkless' status is revealed, they end up being publicly humiliated and often beaten for it, even more so if they are children. The suicide statistics of Quirkless people between the ages of twelve and eighteen is eight times greater than the number of people with Quirk in the same age group, and the number rises among the civilian proletariat between twenty-five and forty, without considering the sex or monetary status of the individual. Conclusion: the quality of life is completely disparate, and begins to be defined with the individual even at the beginning of his development as a person.

Izuku and Katsuki were the best friends until the age of four, along with three other boys of relatively close age with a difference of a few months. Of this group of five hero-loving munchkins, four manifested Peculiarities in the time allotted by specialist Quirks medicine, except for the smallest of them. And at the moment when those munchkins discovered the lack of Peculiarity of a Midoriya Izuku ... Well, the answer to that is in the paragraph above, just go and look.

**oOoOo**

It is perfectly possible and plausible for anyone to say that a fourteen-year-old boy has no worries other than studying for the high school entrance exam, going out with friends and - perhaps, it depends a lot on the person's preference - getting one girlfriend. In the case of boys using Quirk, things are not very different, except for entrance exams, which are more focused on schools with prestigious heroic courses than regular high school. And in the case of a certain Bakugou Katsuki, who is the undeclared king of Onodera Middle School, this particular observation is almost all true, except for the girlfriend part, which has been replaced by another hobby that, in Katsuki's most sincere opinion, it was more important than that.

That hobby was putting the damn Nerd in his place.

You see, there was a time when the two were best friends and everything, and he really loved Aunt Inko and how much Deku idolized him, but after Katsuki awoke his peculiarity, his perspectives slowly changed.

But then Deku - Quirkless, useless, damn fucking Deku - went down that ravine and held out his hand to Katsuki, asking if he was okay. And looking into those sincere and fucking green eyes full of damn worry made Katsuki's world suddenly implode, because those were the eyes of a **true hero**.

That was why that weak shit had to be put back in its fucking place.

But now, less than ten months before the entrance exam for Yuuei, useless and stupid Deku didn't matter anymore. All that mattered to Katsuki now was to become stronger and dethrone All Might as Hero No. 1.

Whatever it cost.

In another world, Katsuki would blow up Deku's notebook and tell him to go for a swan dip from the roof (and Izuku would). In another world, Katsuki would do the same things that were mentioned before, and instead of going to the roof, Izuku would simply leave the school and retrieve his notebook and leave for home. In this universe, there was no slime villain or All Might, and Izuku went on with his life until he graduated from high school and went to a university on the other side of the country to never return. In another world, certain people died when it was not time, and other people in particular launched a great " **fuck, no** " and decided to change that.

In this world, Katsuki blew up Deku's notebook and threw it out the window, told Deku to dive like a swan and went out with his usual friends/sycophants, leaving an angry and hurt Izuku behind.

In this world, certain circumstances and coincidences have been attended to, and thanks to some "deaths", things have changed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kohei Horikoshi was never exactly clear about any statistical calculations about the non-peculiar population in BnHA, so I used some censuses that happened recently here in Brazil about suicide among teenagers and adults as a reference for this story. Having said that, it is extremely important that people pay attention to one another, as the main cause of suicide among young people and adults is social pressure, bullying and diseases such as depression and social anxiety. I am not familiar with help services in other countries, but Brazil has the CVV - Center for the Valorization of Life - whose link is here: (https://www.cvv.org.br/) and the telephone number is 188. They have chat services, 24/7 live phone assistance and email service.
> 
> Please take this into account, and see you in the next chapter.


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plot catches on fire and Oru Maito almost turns into bacon.
> 
> Or, alternatively: one in which a new Sky has a very rude awakening, a certain gooey villain regrets all of his life decisions and Hero Number One has a slight taste of Vongola Madness TM.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS: More or less explicit mentions of self-hatred, depression, suicide and physical and verbal abuse. All the important contacts about this are in the final notes of the last chapter.
> 
> Forgiveness for any discomfort and good reading.

* * *

**Lesson Number Two: From ashes to fire, from fire to wildfire**

* * *

~~**White burns his eyes. His skin. His meat. His bones and blood. It burns and burns and he wants the heat to end, he wants it to stop because he's coming apart ...!** ~~

~~**White burns his soul. He dies and then everything is infinitely white.** ~~

When Kacchan blows up his notebook and casually throws it out the window, Izuku is torn between crying and punching his ex best friend in the face. He also doesn't know what's worse - Kacchan destroying all of his analysis work or telling him to basically kill himself. It hurts and stings and Izuku thinks Kacchan is lucky that he doesn't listen to his insults that have gotten worse and worse over time. Izuku knows that he is useless, he knows that he will not be a hero no matter how hard he tries, he knows that he is below the base of the food chain because _he does not have a Quirk._

He hates it. Hates that people discard him before they really meet him, hates that teachers play deaf and blind to what Kacchan and the other students do to him, hates that _his own mother_ can't trust him enough to be a hero even without a Quirk and who blames himself for not having a damn power, no matter how small or weak. Izuku feels abandoned and underestimated, neglected and thrown away like trash. Izuku doesn't admit it, but sometimes, in the dark depths of his own mind, he agrees with Kacchan's words and considers that the world would be better if _he didn't exist._

Midoriya Izuku hates himself a little more whenever he thinks about it.

Some days, there is something inside him that stings and hurts, burns in a way that he thinks is better than bad, and he thinks that - _that half-dead heat_ \- should have been his Quirk. Would he spit fire like his father? Would he have telekinesis like his mother? Or is it something like pyroknesis? He thinks and thinks more about it, analyzes all possibilities and hypotheses, and tries to make that heat - _this **dying ember**_ \- inside him wake up and **burn**.

But he never succeeds.

Until suddenly he does.

Izuku is coming home after school when it happens. He walks through the center, notes a little bit about the Quirks of Kamui Woods and Mt. Lady and the villain with a growth mutation they face, and even sees Kacchan and his friends heading towards the arcade, where they would probably stay until the sunset or Kacchan's mother call.

Izuku doesn't think about how he wanted to be there. He refuses to submit himself to this, because thinking about what might have been hurts more than being alone. For this reason, instead of following the usual path through the center of Musutafu, he follows an alley close to the police station and goes down the street to the secondary street that passes under the abandoned overpass near the river.

In another world, Izuku would leave there dead and possessed by a slime monster. In another world, All Might would save him and Midoriya Izuku's future would follow a completely different path than this story. In that world, there is a coal of _Dying Will_ within the heart of Midoriya Izuku, and that - _this **black coal with a core of flaming amber** almost extinguished_ \- changes everything.

Izuku has always been intuitive. He always knew when Kacchan was going to explode before he even did it, he always knew when there was something bad lurking in the dark alley near the school and he always knew when his classmates would try to "practice" his Quirks in PE. Izuku also always knew when he had to avoid his mother because it was her wedding anniversary and it was almost fifteen years since Midoriya Hisashi had left the house or called, and she was too sad to face the constant memory of her missing husband abroad.

He is not going to start over Kacchan again, just not.

But as intuitive as Midoriya Izuku was, he was also a simple child, and it is almost certain that he - because he is young and inexperienced in this sea of chaos called life - will not pay attention to what his instincts are trying to say until late too much.

Izuku enters the relatively short tunnel under the overpass lost in murmurs and analysis, steps on a manhole cover as he walks, and ignores the pang of premonition that stabs his outside simply because he is too distracted and because one of Kacchan's "friends" left a bruise throbbing over there. And as mentioned earlier, certain coincidences and circumstances have been met - and Midoriya Izuku's luck was absolutely terrible.

He was halfway out when the manhole cover shot up with a stroundus _clang!_ , and that part of Izuku that always put him on the run whenever Kacchan and his gang were nearby roared at him to move his legs and get out from that place as fast as he could.

And Izuku would have done it if it weren't for the ingrained custom of every remotely curious human being that made him look back, his big emerald eyes slightly startled looking for the source of the noise only to come across a huge, disgusting and extremely smelly mud and sewage monster. Who laughed darkly and jumped on him.

After that everything was confused and furiously brilliant.

Everything was white. There was no floor or ceiling, no walls and no corners; it was like a canvas where the only thing with a volume dimension was Izuku. It was scary, because he could feel the floor under his feet and his eyes realized that there was light in the room, but at the same time there was none of that - no sense of touch or smell, and no trace of light or sound.

It was like being dead but being alive at the same time. Almost like a limbo. Terrifying. And to make matters worse, he was as naked as the day he was born.

Izuku wondered if that ... Room, for lack of a better word, was the mud villain's stomach. It didn't seem possible that a creature that was essentially liquid had a dimensional pocket inside its belly, especially since this was not at all practical, since anything that was absorbed by the villain would have ended up there, just like Izuku. And then there was the million-dollar question: _how in the hell was he going to get out of there?_

It was so _sad_ and _comical_ that Izuku simply decided to take a breath before _shouting_ as loudly as possible while crying in _pure anger_. What he didn't expect was the watery laugh that was definitely not his, which came from somewhere behind the distressed boy, and Izuku felt his panic and discomfort increase when he realized this. He then cautiously turned to face his "cellmate", shaking hands covering his private parts.

It was a man. He was taller than Izuku, was equally naked and had dark blond hair, almost brown, which stuck out in all sides in a soft mess that resembled Izuku's own wavy locks. If the teenager were to estimate, he would say he was between twenty-five and thirty, but the tiredness on his shoulders and the wet, broken noise of his laughter made him much older than that. And there was the position that the man was in; kneeling on the floor that was not a floor, bent forward to the point that he was doing a seiza supported on his elbows and closed fists, his nose just over two fingers from touching the white wherever they were.

He was _crying_ and was _broken_ in a way that seemed to be gone. And because of that, because he **understood** this kind of feeling, Izuku approached and kneeled awkwardly in front of the man, keeping one hand in his lap while he extended the other and touched the stranger on the shoulder. The man shuddered and slowly rose, unfolding himself from the seiza as if every movement broke his bones and caused unimaginable pain, until he was looking at Izuku with an impressive pair of flaming amber irises, although his eyes were still wet and injected with blood from crying. The man opened his eyes wide and opened his lips as if to speak, but at the last second he changed his mind; instead, he held out his fist to Izuku, as if he were offering something and wanted him to take it, while staring at the indecisive and suspicious teenager with an aura of who had all the time in the world to wait for Izuku to make up his mind.

Well, Izuku really had nothing to lose, so he held out an open hand, palm up. The man smiled and opened his hand, dropping a heavy ring into Izuku's hand. He had the impression that what was supposed to be a huge piece of precious crystal was actually a particularly carved splinter of coal, but before the boy could ask what it was for, the jewel burst into flames the color of the sunset, engulfing Izuku and dispelling the now smiling man in front of the boy. Midoriya's spine shivered when the entity - because that was what the man was, it couldn't be anything else - whispered without a voice in his ear.

**_Your hours are marked on the ring. Good luck, Undicesimo._ **

And everything disappeared.

**oOoOo**

Toshinori had been chasing the mud villain for over an hour, and half of that time was spent in an uncomfortable game of cat and rat in the sewers not at all welcoming to Musutafu. And the blond man was forced to admit that the creature was ingenious, as it hid in the dirty water and in the filthy walls, its color and liquid mass making it almost perfectly camouflaged if it weren't for its constant laughter and insults thrown at the hero, whose side the bruise hurt more and more as he was forced to keep his combat mode on at full speed. And then the creature darted through an exit, practically popping the drain cover under the pressure of its geyser-shaped body impact. Toshinori spat out some colorful curses and regressed to his skeletal - and civilian - form, because there was no way he would pass through the hole without causing further damage to the property.

The hero successfully emerged from the manhole, but not in time to prevent the villain from taking a passing civilian hostage - who was a small child, which made things ten times worse. With a burst of smoke, Toshinori returns to his larger size and fires in the direction of the attack, but before he can even close his fist and retreat his arm to a Smash, the villain and the hostage burst into a huge blaze of amber fire, so big, shiny and warm that would make Endeavor himself ashamed. It was with a morbid admiration and a sensation of crunchiness on the skin of his face that Toshinori watched the villain scream and burn in the child's hands, his body sizzling like water on a hot plate as the child's uncontrolled peculiarity dissipated him until there was nothing left of the creature , not even a puddle of dry sludge. The child burned for almost a full minute after that before finally losing gas and collapsing on his knees and hands, bowing his head and vomiting and spitting out an unholy mix of stomach acid, sewage and rotten mud. Toshi winced; it shouldn't be a particularly pleasant feeling.

He waited for the boy to finish before approaching, calmly crouching down beside the child and carefully pulling him away from the alarmingly large pool of vomit. The boy coughed and spat out another piece of villain before groaning and opening his eyes visibly glazed with shock.

"Are you okay, young man?" Asks Toshi, ready to pick up the child and run to the nearest hospital as soon as he is sure he was remotely conscious. "Can you understand me?"

"Tired out." The boy murmurs, slowly blinking his amber-orange eyes. "The villain...?"

"He was ..." Damn, he couldn't tell the child obviously in shock that he had killed the creature. It would be practically asking to be flambé, after all the boy clearly still did not have a precise control of his power. "Dispatched. I'm going to take you to the hospital, okay?"

"Uhun ..." murmurs the boy, winking lethargic again before closing his eyes and passing out for good. Toshinori was relieved; will know what kind of damage the villain's peculiarity caused to the boy's body.

Carefully, Toshinori maneuvered the boy in one arm and picked up his shopping bag, which was abandoned in favor of attending to the child's emergency. They arrive at the hospital in two big jumps and the boy is immediately taken for a full stomach wash and a round of vaccines with antibiotics - highlighted by an anti-tetanus - after a moderately soft landing at the Emergency doors and a cry for help from Toshi. God only knew what kind of disease and debris that villain had in him.

After being absolutely sure that the boy - Midoriya Izuku - would be fine and that his mother had already been informed, Toshinori excused himself, returned to his civilian self in a nearby alley and left for the police station. Tsukauchi-kun and Sansa-chan would have a field day with it all.

None of the doctors or All Might himself noticed the intricate ring with a strange amber crystal hanging from Midoriya Izuku's right ring finger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And ... END! The feedback from this fic is really making me excited and full of inspiration, so keep feeding my self-esteem, humans! Being trapped inside an apartment surrounded by annoying neighbors for almost eight months is really not the best muse when it comes to writing, really.
> 
> Wash your hands, wear a mask AS DOCTORS SAY TO USE, and beware of adulterated gel alcohol and presidents of the republic who recommend chloroquine!
> 
> See ya ~


	4. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Tsuna has an epiphany, Byakuran gives a hysterical laugh worthy of Director Nedzu, Yuni ends up in an uncomfortable place and the original BnHA timeline goes into metaphorical space.
> 
> Or the one where Izuku disappears for a week, come back looking like he went on a wild ride and Katsuki starts to take his head off his ass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is your fault, Breno; I need to sleep, damn it! Jokes aside, I really think I'll end this fic by the end of the year, mainly because my inspiration works on the basis of constructive feedback and compliments. That said, I'm thinking of starting a poll on my Tumblr to decide the new design for Izuku's Vongola Sky Ring. I think something new is going to be extremely interesting, and I wanted you to help me make that choice. I will first sketch some things, and then let the dice roll, so to speak tehehehe
> 
> So again: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ma-du
> 
> Ah, and I feel that I must warn that from this chapter on, Izuku will be a little OCC, mainly because he will be a bizarre mixture of himself and Tsuna's personality in his more ... Rebornish. He will observe things more from the angle of someone who has already endured a lot of other people's shit - cof cof Reborn, Mukuro, Byakuran, the entire Varia, Hibari ... Just to name a few cof cof - than from the angle of a child of fourteen years that he doesn't understand life, so ... Yes. It is better for Katsuki to prepare himself, because Izuku has transcended to a larger plane of existence whose modus operanti is to sigh and try to follow the dance in the best possible way. And if it involves some words that go straight to the proverbial jugular, well ... Nobody can really blame him for that, right?
> 
> good reading

* * *

**Lesson Number Three: Even rabbits and guinea pigs have teeth (and they are sharp)**

* * *

~~_He is four years old and just fell from the tree in the backyard because the neighbor's dog barks and scared him. He fell on his head, but before he hit the ground, a crown of fire lit his forehead and the voice that was not a voice inside him said to_ curl up like a ball and do a somersault on his back when he landed, as doing so would prevent let him open his skull _in the deceptively soft grass. He does and smiles because it_ works _, and the_ fire is so warm _and_ good _that he..._~~

He is four years old and is sitting in front of a bearded, chubby doctor, and Mommy is sitting next to him, worried because he has had to do a lot of tests because he doesn’t have a Quirk yet like Kacchan and the other children at the daycare center. Mommy thinks he is late, that he will be one of those cases of late awakening, that he will have a Quirk, even if it is weaker than her ability to attract small objects to herself. He has hope, he has to be one of those late awakenings, because if he _doesn't have a Quirk_ , he...

~~_Grandpa approaches him with a smile and worried eyes as Daddy nudges him for injuries, but he is fine, even though his head caught on fire when he fell. Grandpa bends down in front of him, says he_ is going to put out the fire and that it is for his good _, and Daddy holds his shoulders tight because he moves to run, because he can feel it will be bad at the same time as the voice that is not a voice_ screams _for him to_ run _and_ hide _, and he does not want to lose the warm fire. He doesn't want to be..._~~

"You better lose hope that he has a Quirk for now or in the future." Says the doctor, sprawled on the chair while keeping his fingers interlaced resting on his belly. He says this as if he were talking about the weather, as if saying that he is a Quirkless is the same as saying that the sky is blue or that Kacchan has the temperament of an angry Pomeranian. Mommy makes a painful noise beside him, asks if the doctor is absolutely sure about it, asks if he can't have a passive Quirk hidden somewhere, but... "He has an extra knuckle on his little toe. And everyone who has an extra knuckle on the little finger does not develop a Quirk. This is scientifically proven, you can even search the internet. " He hears this and opens his eyes wide, not realizing that Mommy started to cry. He doesn't pay attention to that because he...

~~_Grandpa asks him to stay put and Daddy holds him tighter when he tries to run away again. Grandpa then extends his right hand, the same one that has the ring with the company mark on his finger, and a small dark orange flame lights up at the tip of the indicator, getting closer and closer to his forehead until it touches, and the voice that it was not a voice_ screams _as the fire inside him squirms until it is_ drowned out _by grandpa's fire, and when that stops, he..._~~

**_He's crippled._ **

Izuku wakes up confused. He doesn't remember what happened, and wonders if Kacchan finally managed to send him to the hospital instead of the school's infirmary, because the ceiling of Onodera's infirmary was not as white as the one Izuku is staring at, and the ceiling of the room at home it has wooden lining instead of sterile plaster. He is one hundred percent sure that he is in the hospital when he turns his head to the side and sees the cardiac monitor, the green line rising and falling as the machine beeps as Izuku's heartbeat; there was also a bag of nutrients attached to his left arm, and what looked like a catheter tubing was missing under Izuku's sheets - he would really pretend it wasn't there. Izuku didn't want to know how long he was sleeping to end up needing it.

And it was at that moment that the door to Izuku's room opened and his mother came in, looking completely dejected and exhausted, as evidenced by the bags under her crying eyes and the smoky cup of coffee she had in her hands. She has her usual half-ponytail undone, and her leaf-green hair is greasy, and something inside Izuku murmurs that she won't go home or take any bath longer than five minutes for at least two or three days. This murmuring something then nudges him to make a sound, to speak to the clearly concerned woman who is standing at the door with her head down and shaking shoulders, and Izuku is pouting, first because his throat hurts and second because his mouth is dry and sticky . His mother lifts her head from where she is standing looking at the floor near Izuku's bed, frightened by the sudden noise, and promptly drops the coffee cup on the bedroom floor because she is rushing towards him, new tears streaming down her face because of course she would cry because he was finally awake. Oddly, Izuku contemplates this with a detachment that is not normal for him, which is as or more emotional than his mother, who usually says that he has his heart up his sleeve, where everyone can see - Kacchan says that he has a heart of a guinea pig, weak and cowardly. Izuku agrees more with him than with his mother in that regard, but he will never tell her that either; he is cynical, not cruel.

"IZUKU!" Shouts Midoriya Inko, practically throwing herself over her son and hugging him so tightly that Izuku almost thinks she wants him to bite a rib. "You woke up!"

Izuku gives some - tentatively - comforting pats on his mother's back and resigns himself to be bathed in tears for the next twenty minutes before she realizes that he cannot speak because he needs water, in addition to the doctor. It's not that Inko is a sluggish or bad mother at what she does, but the problem is that she never really stopped treating him like the four-year-old boy who was completely shocked that he couldn't fulfill his dream of being a hero and that he never to be able to have a Quirk. He knows that she loves him with all her strength, but he also knows that she still blames herself for Izuku having an extra knuckle on his little toes - and to be honest, he also never really forgave her for begged forgiveness to him for something she couldn't control instead of supporting him in his dream even though he didn't have a power.

Izuku loves her, but he also hates her a little.

And isn't that another strange feeling for him? Seriously, somebody rewire his sensitive emotional, because that has already started to get worrying.

"Oh, I haven't asked you if you need anything yet, dear!" She suddenly says, lifting her head from his chest, still with tears streaming down her flushed cheeks as she opens a shaky, watery smile. "And we also need to call your doctor, he'll be happy to hear that you woke up, and you need to ..."

Izuku let his mother's ramblings lull him while he reflected on what happened to him in the tunnel, because now that he is wide awake, he can more or less order the events in his head; Kacchan being a piece of shit as always, walking away from school, seeing Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods fighting, taking notes and analyzing, Kacchan going to the arcade, changing paths and going through the overpass tunnel near the river, the slime villain with pedophilia tendencies jumping on him after literally leaving the sewer, being (he was still completely shivering from it) practically violated by the thing, being almost choked to death and then ...

White and amber and everything was suddenly fire and heat and so much, _so much **power** ...!_

And then everything went dark and the events were cut straight for now. Seriously, after this new brick that the world decided to throw at him, Izuku is sure that a) some motherfucker deity hates him _strongly_ and b) his luck is _really_ shit. And my goodness, he is now cursing more than Kacchan. Incredible, it was just what he needed - to become a politically correct version of that prejudiced idiot. Midoriya sighed and tried to reign over his new temper which was curiously conformist and as abrasive as a wire brush. He has never felt so pissed off in his life as he does now; but going through a near-death experience can do that to a person, right? Izuku came out of his potentially murderous thoughts - he wanted _so **badly**_ to hit Katsuki with a slipper that was even comical - when the doctor entered the room followed by a man in a coat and fedora hat who immediately stood in the corner of the room, near the door. Discreetly, Izuku kept an eye on him.

He remembers another man with a hat like that, but with a yellow band separating the lapel from the body of the thing. He remembers that and two black eyes and a pair of curly sideburns and a chameleon that wasn’t really a chameleon and _the_ holy fucking training _that would even put_ Satan _on his_ knees _begging for a quick and painless death than another round of that_. Izuku almost choked on the water when he thought about it and his body decided that laughing while swallowing a liquid was a good idea.

He also doesn't know why he imagined this since he has never been through such a thing in his life - crazy races to get away from Kacchan apart. Inko quickly took the glass from her son's hands and gave him a few careful pats on the back, looking alarmed between him and the seemingly unconcerned doctor who was busy with Izuku's latest exams and cardiac monitor data.

"Try not to choke, Midoriya-kun. Your throat is still too sensitive for that." Warns the doctor, looking up from the clipboard he was examining before dropping it on Izuku's bedside table and pulling a dark green stethoscope out of his lab coat. "By the way, I'm Dr. Shiroshito Yuzuri, the otorhinolaryngologist who took care of you after you were brought in to the emergency." Adds the man while placing the stethoscope disc on Izuku's back, listening to the heart before lowering the instrument to his lungs. "Take a deep breath, please. Hold it. Exhale. Again, please. Yes, thank you."

"How's he doing, Doctor?" Inko asks, squeezing Izuku's right hand tightly between hers. Izuku felt something dig into the skin and flesh around the ring finger, but decided to put that aside for the moment; listening to the doctor was more important than checking if he had any problems with his hand or taking away the little comfort his mother had. "Does he need to go to surgery again?"

Wait, _what_.

"No, Mrs. Midoriya. Midoriya-kun's stomach was completely cleaned when he was admitted to the hospital, as well as his airways were cleaned and the tears were successfully etched. The only thing that can happen to Midoriya-kun is to have a hoarse voice from now on, since one of his vocal cords had to be repaired and is a little stiff due to the scar. Oh, and the catheter can be removed today, we keep it just in case. " Explains Dr. Shiroshito, putting the stethoscope away and replacing it with a small flashlight. "Open your mouth as wide as you can and stick your tongue out please, Midoriya-kun. Yes, thank you." He sheds light on the inner depths of Izuku's neck and the boy hopes he won't be long, because his tongue was really drying and his jaw was starting to flutter with a caibran. "Okay, you can close and drink more water if you want." Inko returns the glass and Izuku eagerly swallows the rest of the blessedly cold liquid against his hot windpipe. "Do you think you can talk?"

Izuku bragging as he returns the glass to his mother. His throat still stuck like a bitch, but speaking - even if only in whispers - was apparently manageable. He just hoped not to spit blood or worse, bits of muscle.

(We will not go that way, because _eeew_ )

"How long have I been gone? And who brought me here?" Izuku asks, despite that same part that prompted him to get Inko's attention to murmur that it was less than three days ago. He will also deliberately ignore that his voice sounds more like a croaking frog than anything remotely human. "I mean, I remember almost everything that happened, but I don't remember coming to the hospital."

"All Might brought you." Says the man in the hat, who was now taking the object out of his head and placing it on his chest while bowing his head and finally introducing himself. "I am Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa, and I am responsible for the case of the villain who attacked you, Midoriya-kun." Izuku croaked a pleasure to meet you before accepting another glass of water. Did he ever say that his throat was poking like a bitch? "You said you remember what happened. Could you give more details about the attack?"

Izuku pretended not to hear his mother's anguished moan and swallowed the rest of the water, postponing the inevitable while he could, even though internally he was _screaming_ at the recent discovery that _All Might_ of _all people_ saved him and brought him to the hospital - and he missed it!

Damn, Midoriya Izuku's Luck _really_ sucked.

"I ... I was coming home from school, and instead of going downtown, I went the other way because I had watched Kamui Woods and Mt. Lady fight against a villain with a mutated Quirk on the subway line." Says Izuku, resolving to follow the advice of that voice in the back of his head and refraining from mentioning anything to do with Katsuki for the sake of his own mental health, as his aching throat was enough; a headache now of all times would be inauspicious if he wanted to get out of this with what was left of his dignity intact. "I decided to go through the drainage tunnel near the river, the one that is under the closed viaduct. I didn't hear anything as I passed through the sewer cover, but when I was almost out of there, the... _That thing_ kind of exploded to outside the manhole, he shouted something and jumped at me. After that I don't remember anything except waking up here. " Izuku finishes, sipping his water again while he waits for the detective to finish taking notes.

"You are telling the truth." Says Naomasa, closing the notepad and putting that and the pen back in his coat pocket. Izuku feels a tingle at the back of his neck, and the thing inside him that was advising him grins his teeth and growls at Tsukauchi, suspicious as he told Izuku to distort the truth as much as possible without slipping into a lie, something that would be almost impossible if Izuku had not practiced this with his mother. "Do you mind answering a few more questions, Midoriya-kun?"

Tsuna nods, and for the next ten minutes he answers things like _what he had done at school that day before he left_ (he just says he had talked to some classmates while he kept his notebooks, nothing about Katsuki and his suggestion of where to take a dip. ), _as was the fight of Kamui Woods and Mt. Lady_ (he almost, _almost_ , got excited about it and tried to talk more than he should have, which resulted in a coughing fit with a little blood and more sips of water, but nothing that he should be too concerned about, words from the doctor), and finally the whole questioning thing ended and Detective Naomasa said goodbye, thanking Izuku for his cooperation and wishing him well.

In the slightest opinion of the voice at the bottom of Izuku's skull, it was about time.

"Well, now that the law is out of the way, we can proceed with some reevaluation tests and the removal of your catheter and nutrition fluids, Midoriya-kun. Do you think you are well enough for that?" Dr. Shiroshito asks, and Izuku excitedly quacks a yes, please that makes the doctor smile indulgently and his mother laugh, even if it was more of a hysterical cry than a real laugh. Izuku felt a little bad for her, but he didn't care much about it. "Well, let's get started then. The sooner we finish this, the sooner you will be discharged and can go home, Midoriya-kun."

Izuku deliberately pretended that he was not thrilled with emotion and concentrated on following the doctor's directions. Just a little while longer. Just a little while longer and then he could finally go home.

Even though Musutafu no longer felt like _home_.

**One week later**

When Deku doesn't show up on Monday's class, Katsuki pretended that nothing was really out of the ordinary. Nothing happened, useless Deku is sick with the flu or something, because he is a piece of trash that is stupid enough to catch flu in the middle of spring. He's not dead somewhere or anything, because if not for Aunt Inko, she would have said something to Katsuki's old hag. That's right, nothing happened and everything is beautiful and nothing hurts.

So why is a part of him squirming and worrying since the moment he told Deku to jump off the roof? I mean, Katsuki knows that Deku is stupid, but he can't be _that stupid_ at that point, can he?

_(A part of Katsuki that is him and at the same time is not, shows his teeth with a scornful smile. At the core of Bakugou Katsuki, a blood-red coal that was previously erased crackles and and sparked some sparks)_

Katsuki goes on with his life, pretending he doesn't see Deku's empty table gathering dust, pretending he doesn't realize that stupid broccoli that Deku calls hair isn't in his line of sight, pretending he's so used to the presence of that shit of Nerd that, the moment Deku - _Izuku_ \- disappears for no apparent reason, he is the first to notice.

It is Friday, almost six days after Deku’s disappearance, that the class’s leading teacher enters the room and says that Deku was in the hospital, but that he is now well and at home, finishing recovering from emergency surgery, and that he will return to school next week. The room fills with a buzz of whispers, the students exchanging theories among themselves about what could have happened to Deku to end up in the hospital, and it is at that moment that one of Katsuki's "friends", Tsubasa Fatoshi, leans in to one of the girls and says that **Katsuki told Midoriya to jump off the roof.**

All the students around who could hear Tsubasa stop talking and look at Katsuki, who is staring at Deku's table - Izuku damn, his name is **IZUKU** \- without blinking while he has the impression that a bucket of cold water has just been thrown over his head. In Katsuki's head, the teacher's words are repeated in a loop along with the words he said the last time he saw Deku, and _holy shit he just told his fucking best friend to kill himself!_

Katsuki doesn't notice, but he is crying.

It is the first time he has done this.

When the next Monday arrived, the whole school knew what Katsuki had done, in true and false detail. And in less than four days - including the weekend - the whole reputation that Katsuki had carefully built up since the moment he set foot on Onodera had turned to proverbial dust. Nobody really spoke to him anymore, and being honest? Katsuki thought things were better this way. He wasn't sure if he wouldn't blast someone or anything if any of the extras decided that asking about the rumor - true, shit - that he had Izuku kill himself was really true or not, given that Tsubasa and the other idiots were well known for being true parasites in search of their fifteen minutes of fame, even if it was at the expense of someone like Katsuki, who was literally the only hope for a shitty school like Onodera to send someone to Yuuei or similar.

Katsuki really shit and walked to this fucking place. I mean, he knew he was wrong to mess with Izuku, okay? He was not an idiot, he knew he had crossed all limits humanly possible, even if it was for good reason before - he just wanted to keep his Quirkless friend safe, and if it was necessary to beat the shit out of Izuku for him to understand it, whatever. The problem was that, at some point, Katsuki forgot why he was doing this, and things got out of hand up to that point.

He now remembered why.

Izuku was always the smallest in their group, something about being born a month and a half ahead of time or something, even though he was born healthy - words from Katsuki's mother when he asked why Izuku was so small when they were children. Katsuki's mother always told her son to take care of Izuku, because he was small and fragile and Katsuki was bigger and stronger, made of more resistant things in contrast to the delicate and thin crystal that was Izuku. Where Katsuki was temperamental and rude, Izuku was kind and polite, and the two complemented each other like that, using their own strengths to cover each other's weaknesses. And whenever Izuku was around, Katsuki didn't feel so angry at the world and the extras around.

He promised to keep Izuku safe from anyone who wanted to hurt him, including Katsuki himself.

Then his Explosion manifested, but Izuku's power did not. And they waited, and waited a little longer, until Izuku went to the doctor and came back saying that he didn't have a Quirk. And Izuku kept saying that he wanted and would be a hero, just as he and Katsuki had agreed when Katsuki's power appeared. And then he fell off that log over the stream, and Izuku reached out to him.

Katsuki then realized, with a shudder and a painful sob that no one noticed, that it was at that moment that he forgot his promise.

It was with a smooth slide that the living room door opened and closed. No one, not even the teacher or Katsuki - who was still lost in thought as he stared at the blank sheet of the notebook - would not have noticed the entry of the only absent student had he not spoken.

"Sorry I'm late, sensei. Can I go to my place?"

Katsuki raised his head so fast that he almost stretched his neck.

Izuku was back. And when he looked around, Katsuki realized that his eyes were now amber like fire.

Something about Katsuki cracked and **burned**.

**oOoOo**

Sawada Tsunayoshi was never made of durable things. He was always small and thin, with big doe eyes, fluffy hair, bony knees and sharp elbows. He was always something to be protected, whether by his parents or by his classmates in kindergarten when the older children wanted to disturb him just because he was more delicate than the others.

Until he wasn't.

An old man's hand touched his forehead and then he was as clumsy as a baby giraffe, his short-term memories were messed up and he almost couldn't retain anything he learned. And the children who were once his friends, the same ones who took care of him because he was - and still is - small and fragile like a baby bird, have become just a few more of those who tormented him.

Sawada Tsunayoshi was small, weak and fragile like a baby kitten, easily killable if he was poked too hard with a sharp stick. For eleven years, he was Dame-Tsuna, and he would remain that same malnourished and weak kitten if it were not for the arrival of another baby who was not really a baby.

He was a baby cat, yes, but he wasn't just a kitten either, because Tsunayoshi's father was a lion after all, wasn't he? And like everyone who has studied biology or lived with a certain Skylark for a long time, lion cubs are born with closed eyes and are small and weak, but even a cub has claws, no matter how small. They grew and prospered if they were properly nurtured and taught, and this was something that Tsunayoshi needed, but that could not be provided by anyone. And then Reborn came, nurtured and taught Tsuna, and the Young Lion of Vongola's cub grew, opened its eyes and showed its claws.

Sawada Tsunayoshi was made of sharp glass, barbed wire and burning fire. He was the eye of the chaos that his Guardian Elements created, and he led the hurricane of destruction that was the Tenth Generation of the largest mafia family as a conductor conducted his orchestra. His right hand quickly sprayed enemies while his left hand slowly reduced them to pieces, all depending on their master's level of fury. The family healer had the power to lovingly heal all the wounds of anyone who needed it, while crushing a mountain with bare fists, in contrast to the consigliere, whose kindness was minimal and the capacity for destruction even greater, especially if he had his hedgehog in one hand and his tonfa in the other. And there were the illusionists, a man and a woman, he being kinder than his sister when in battle. The only one who could be considered remotely more calm and vulnerable among all of them would be the baby bull, but as said before, even a bull calf has horns and could attack if provoked properly.

They were at the top of the food chain, a strong and dangerous flock of carnivores where some disguised themselves as herbivores and were led by a hungry omnivore. They reigned invincible and unattainable for ten years, until they did not do it anymore.

Sawada Tsunayoshi was made of coal, ash and gasoline. He was always easily flammable. Because of this and because of that, when the world burned with fire and radiation, Sawada Tsunayoshi burned with him.

He burned like a raging fire through time and space, until it found a new world and a new brazier.

Sawada Tsunayoshi's Dying Will burned and passed on.

In another world, a new Sky opened his eyes and faced a white ceiling.

Byakuran Gesso never denied that he was crazy. He also never denied that he was a sadistic madman who had fun watching other humans burn. So when his world burned and his Skies brothers came and asked for help, he smiled and agreed. He looked around, examined all the realities he could while his original world turned to ashes and barren soil, and he couldn't hold back the manic laughter he gave when he found the perfect world to move. He, Tsuna and Yuni would have a lot of fun, he couldn't wait.

So, in the name of fun, he directed them there when Shouichi-kun's machine started.

Byakuran laughed and laughed some more as his soul and the soul of his brothers burned and reborn.

Meanwhile, in the depths of an innocuous building at first sight, a small, skinny girl with long, snow-white hair and a small forehead crowned by a single horn sat on her sterile bed and hummed while playing with a teddy bear. shabby plush. His small, thin voice did not reach his caregivers who lurked behind the darkness, but if they had heard, this is what they would have heard:

**The Sea knows no bounds.**

  
**The Clam passes down its form from Generation to Generation.**

  
**The Rainbow appears from time to time before fading away.**

The song echoed in the darkness like an omen.

Only two other people heard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had surgery on my throat and pharynx when I was fourteen, and the week of recovery was a whore - my nose kept bleeding and I couldn't speak or complain that I no longer wanted to gargle with serum instead of brushing my teeth because the toothpaste also burned like a bitch, grrr. The only good thing about all this is that I spent a week surviving on chocolate ice cream, pudding and fruit yoghurt three times a day, tehehe. So yes, poor Izuku.
> 
> Already his new problems with Inko are more remnants of Nana's treatment of Tsuna than anything else - for me, he also never exactly forgave his mother for deliberately continuing to think he was and calling him useless, even when he proved that was no longer so "dame". Inko is a good person and an excellent mother, but even the best mothers have their shortcomings and problems.
> 
> And we're not even going to start the problems with Daddy, we haven't reached that chapter yet.
> 
> And we have Katsuki, who is an annoying little shit, but he is also a smart little shit and very aware of himself and his own mistakes - and besides, I don't really like the fics that keep making him an asshole who doesn't realize he's doing something wrong until it explodes in his face. He knows he is and he's done shit, and he knows he's going to have to deal with it, like it or not. He will not stop being an asshole, because it is BAKUGOU fucking KATSUKI that we are talking about, but he will be an emotionally intelligent asshole, despite being constipated as hell, and therefore not having the slightest idea how to apologize. That said, he's still going to be a bit of an idiot for a while, but it's just because he still doesn't know how to be ... Himself, in another way. * shrugs *
> 
> Well, it's cold and raining here, and I really need to sleep (I still haven't fully transcended the astral plane of the nocturnal animals, Breno, so shhhh). So keep your social distance, wear masks and for the love of Rikudo, NOTHING TO GO TO CLANDESTINE PARTIES! They don't care about basic care and much less care to check for someone who is contaminated entering or force people to wear masks. Things here in Brazil are crazy enough because of that, so please, STAY HOME AND STAY HEALTHY! Life has only one and it is not worth wasting on a dangerous night.
> 
> Long distance kisses and until the next chapter!


End file.
